Barnes Defends Gramm: Americans Are ‘Whining All The Way Through’ The Bad Economy

Last night on Fox News’s Special Report, the “All-Star panel” discussed top McCain adviser Phill Gramm’s recent controversial remarks that regarding the economy, the U.S. has become a “nation of whiners” and the U.S. is merely in a “mental recession.”

“All-Star” and Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes wholeheartedly endorsed Gramm’s assessment, saying he was giving “straight talk” and that “America has become a nation of whiners.” But Barnes took Gramm one step further, acknowledging the economy is “weak,” but that Americans are “whining all the way through it”:

BARNES: He wasn’t wrong to say that. You know what this was? This was straight talk that McCain always says he’s giving it, and this is exactly what Phil Gramm did. He gave straight talk…They claim about how bad the economy is — and it’s weak, no question about that. …They’re whining all the way through it.

Watch it:

Sadly, Barnes wasn’t the first Fox News personality to defend Gramm’s comments yesterday. And this isn’t the first time Barnes has shown a complete lack of understanding of the world outside his high society.

During Fox News’s Democratic primary coverage earlier this year, Barnes described “working class” voters as a euphemism because “it’s kind of mean to say ‘lower class.’ It’s as simple as that.” He explained that the “lower class” are people of low “social class.” The simple fact is that Americans are hurting, not whining.